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January is the perfect month to focus on your interior decorating dilemmas.

What bugs you most about your home?
Clutter everywhere, a general lack of pizzazz, or kids’ rooms that look more like minefields than bedrooms?  Got a home office sharing space with your now not-so-romantic Master Bedroom?  Sound familiar?  Facing one or more of these can make you hate a house you once thought you’d love forever 😉 

But you can love your house again!

Do you feel like your home needs Professional help?
Tada!
Welcome to houzz.com.
I don’t remember how I first found the site, but I enjoy it because it’s packed with inspiring photos and storage solutions.  The site was originally designed to help users connect with a design professional, but you can browse the content, make idea books of the photos, and find solutions to your problems without investing a dime.

If you’re contemplating major changes houzz.com can help you choose a professional by allowing you to see the work of designers in your area before making an initial appointment.  Viewing a designers work via the photos they’ve submitted can give you a sense of the types of projects they’ve had experience with and their unique design style.  

Recently houzz published a great recap featuring the Top 10 articles of 2014.

 

Whether you’re into a full Kitchen DIY project or just a little inspiration for your Family Room or Bedroom, you’ll find something exciting at houzz.com

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/38003610/thumbs/the-top-10-houzz-articles-of-2014

Now that you’ve packed away the holiday decorations, take a walk through your home and try to see it with fresh vision.
Reimagine your spaces.
Is every room working for your family?
Does it serve YOUR NEEDS?
Are you in possession of a formal Dining Room you never use?
Is there a way you can reclaim the square footage by repurposing the space?
Just take out the hanging fixture and Voila ~ you have a new PlayRoom for the kids or a Home Office for yourself.  A place for crafts and hobbies, music or art, or maybe a couple of tables for games and puzzles.

A home is the largest single purchase most of us ever make—why not make every square foot useful to the life you really live, not the life the architect or draftsman thought you’d live.

We all face the same kinds of decorating challenges.

Small closets with just one shelf
Tiny Kitchens without the RIGHT kind of storage spaces
Family areas without any built-in storage for games, toys, and electronics
TV’s and Fireplaces that compete for attention
Rooms that defy furniture arrangement
Bad lighting

As you go from room to room try to identify the things that aren’t working well in each space.

If you’re like most of us you have too much stuff and not enough well thought out storage to contain it.
Is your clutter caused from excess or lack of reasonable storage space?

Ikea’s become my go-to resource for creating the storage I need in every room.

You have to actually have a place for EVERYTHING ~ before everything can be in its place 😉
That will never happen, but a girl can dream.

At Ikea you’ll find excellent and inexpensive pieces that create easy storage solutions.
Line up a few of their tall & narrow Billy bookcases and stash the kid’s toys in baskets (I get cheap ones at World Market) on the lower shelves.  Books find a home on mid-level shelves while art or school supplies can live up top in baskets on the highest shelves.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40279788/#/40263848

Here’s another article from houzz for your New Year.

 

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/34504227/thumbs/8-life-enhancing-home-resolutions-for-the-new-year